"When we knocked at the enormous outer door of a house as large as the Hotel Carnavalet,with a courtyard in front and a garden behind,the sound rang as in a desert.While my uncle inquired of an old porter in livery if the Count were at home,I cast my eyes,seeing everything at once,over the courtyard where the cobblestones were hidden in the grass,the blackened walls where little gardens were flourishing above the decorations of the elegant architecture,and on the roof,as high as that of the Tuileries.The balustrade of the upper balconies was eaten away.Through a magnificent colonnade I could see a second court on one side,where were the offices;the door was rotting.An old coachman was there cleaning an old carriage.The indifferent air of this servant allowed me to assume that the handsome stables,where of old so many horses had whinnied,now sheltered two at most.The handsome facade of the house seemed to me gloomy,like that of a mansion belonging to the State or the Crown,and given up to some public office.A bell rang as we walked across,my uncle and I,from the porter's lodge--/Inquire of the Porter/was still written over the door--towards the outside steps,where a footman came out in a livery like that of Labranche at the Theatre Francais in the old stock plays.
A visitor was so rare that the servant was putting his coat on when he opened a glass door with small panes,on each side of which the smoke of a lamp had traced patterns on the walls.
"A hall so magnificent as to be worthy of Versailles ended in a staircase such as will never again be built in France,taking up as much space as the whole of a modern house.As we went up the marble steps,as cold as tombstones,and wide enough for eight persons to walk abreast,our tread echoed under sonorous vaulting.The banister charmed the eye by its miraculous workmanship--goldsmith's work in iron--wrought by the fancy of an artist of the time of Henri III.
Chilled as by an icy mantle that fell on our shoulders,we went through ante-rooms,drawing-rooms opening one out of the other,with carpetless parquet floors,and furnished with such splendid antiquities as from thence would find their way to the curiosity dealers.At last we reached a large study in a cross wing,with all the windows looking into an immense garden.
"'Monsieur le Cure of the White Friars,and his nephew,Monsieur de l'Hostal,'said Labranche,to whose care the other theatrical servant had consigned us in the first ante-chamber.
"Comte Octave,dressed in long trousers and a gray flannel morning coat,rose from his seat by a huge writing-table,came to the fireplace,and signed to me to sit down,while he went forward to take my uncle's hands,which he pressed.
"'Though I am in the parish of Saint-Paul,'said he,'I could scarcely have failed to hear of the Cure of the White Friars,and I am happy to make his acquaintance.'
"'Your Excellency is most kind,'replied my uncle.'I have brought to you my only remaining relation.While I believe that I am offering a good gift to your Excellency,I hope at the same time to give my nephew a second father.'
"'As to that,I can only reply,Monsieur l'Abbe,when we shall have tried each other,'said Comte Octave.'Your name?'he added to me.
"'Maurice.'
"'He has taken his doctor's degree in law,'my uncle observed.
"'Very good,very good!'said the Count,looking at me from head to foot.'Monsieur l'Abbe,I hope that for your nephew's sake in the first instance,and then for mine,you will do me the honor of dining here every Monday.That will be our family dinner,our family party.'
"My uncle and the Count then began to talk of religion from the political point of view,of charitable institutes,the repression of crime,and I could at my leisure study the man on whom my fate would henceforth depend.The Count was of middle height;it was impossible to judge of his build on account of his dress,but he seemed to me to be lean and spare.His face was harsh and hollow;the features were refined.His mouth,which was rather large,expressed both irony and kindliness.His forehead perhaps too spacious,was as intimidating as that of a madman,all the more so from the contrast of the lower part of the face,which ended squarely in a short chin very near the lower lip.Small eyes,of turquoise blue,were as keen and bright as those of the Prince de Talleyrand--which I admired at a later time--and endowed,like the Prince's,with the faculty of becoming expressionless to the verge of gloom;and they added to the singularity of a face that was not pale but yellow.This complexion seemed to bespeak an irritable temper and violent passions.His hair,already silvered,and carefully dressed,seemed to furrow his head with streaks of black and white alternately.The trimness of this head spoiled the resemblance I had remarked in the Count to the wonderful monk described by Lewis after Schedoni in the /Confessional of the Black Penitents (The Italian)/,a superior creation,as it seems to me,to /The Monk/.
"The Count was already shaved,having to attend early at the law courts.Two candelabra with four lights,screened by lamp-shades,were still burning at the opposite ends of the writing-table,and showed plainly that the magistrate rose long before daylight.His hands,which I saw when he took hold of the bell-pull to summon his servant,were extremely fine,and as white as a woman's.
"As I tell you this story,"said the Consul-General,interrupting himself,"I am altering the titles and the social position of this gentleman,while placing him in circumstances analogous to what his really were.His profession,rank,luxury,fortune,and style of living were the same;all these details are true,but I would not be false to my benefactor,nor to my usual habits of discretion.